Weekend Pillow sewing

I have been wanting to make pillows for my parents for a long time. I've had the pillow forms for months and months sitting in my bedroom. I finally sat down to make them on Saturday evening. I based them loosely off of the pillows Kristyne at Pretty by Hand has made. She makes such pretty things! As I've watched her make all of those pillows I couldn't wait to make some too.

Here was my progress on Saturday evening, I was able to sew both of the tops together, and do a cross hatch quilting on the checkerboard one.

I woke up Sunday morning to sunshine streaming through my windows. It was beautiful! I finished them both up by 9:00 a.m.

The fabric I used is called Simple Abundance by Moda. I recently made a quilt from this fabric. I still have quite a bit left from the fat quarter bundle, and I plan to make table runners that match the pillows for my parents. The backing on the pillows are fabrics I've had in my stash forever. It's time they were used up! These are big pillows 20" x 20". It used up quite a bit of fabric. I enjoy making useful things like them, it's very rewarding!

In which I ramble…

My husband has been dragging me all over Oregon these past few weeks, he has got a traveling bug! As if he doesn’t travel enough, he’s been to Argentina, Amsterdam, and Puerto Rico in the past month and a half. I may be forgetting a trip in there somewhere. My husband, he travels for work.

Anyways, last Saturday we “took a drive” to central Oregon. We drove through Sisters, and had lunch, and I wandered into the Stitchin’ Post. I love that quilt shop. I found some fabric. *disclaimer: I am doing 4 commissioned quilts and needed fabric for them!* I may have bought a yard for me :) Most of these purples were bought there. One of the quilts I am commissioned to make must include purples, okay! Look at them, mmmm….

I was able to cross stitch in the car, because this “drive” we took was 4 hours one way. Here is my progress! I have enjoyed stitching again, it’s so nice.

We arrived at our destination, Fort Rock. A big rock monolith, half moon crater, thing, in the middle of nowhere. We proceeded to hike all of the way around it, and in it and up it, it was really cool. If you are ever in the area *snort*, or have a crazy cool husband like mine, you should go and check it out. We got home at 11:30 p.m.

After all of this driving around, I worked on my Stella Blue quilt on and off through the week, which means I am now done trimming flying geese.

On Tuesday, the longest day of the year, we decided we needed to spend the evening at the beach. We watched the sunset on Indian Beach, look at how gorgeous it was!! We got home at midnight.

By this time I am stumbling tired, like I can’t keep my eyes open or form a full sentence. Oh, and my part time job has been really busy, meaning, I have to come in at 7:00 am, instead of 8:30 am.

Let’s see, what else… I am currently piecing my top for the Block of the Month class I’ve been teaching, here it is so far. I need to add some sort of cool border. I have to think about it. I had my final quilting class last night. I “retired” after a few years of teaching my friends every month. It’ll be nice to have a break. I was asked what I plan to do in my retirement… that is hilarious.

So, this is me this week, a rambling, stumbling, trying to think clearly MESS. Hey, at least I am still having fun right? :) I will work on a “good” post for you guys in the next few days.

Warm Cool Quilt Along

Have any of you been to Jeni’s blog, In Color Order? She, for one, has a fabric stash that will make you drool, and two takes the best photos of her fabrics, making you want to start sewing right after you get done reading her posts. She is starting a quilt along that uses half square triangles (simple!). You choose warm and cool colors from your stash (pretty!) and make a really nice quilt. I don’t do a lot of quilt alongs, simply because I can’t keep up with them. This one however, seems straightforward, so I feel braver joining in.

I was browsing blogs last night trying to relax (I held Cub Scout Pack Meeting at my house a few hours before), and came across her instructions of how to choose your colors, I was sucked right in. I then headed up to my bedroom where I keep my fabric and found lots to choose from, and pulled out these stacks.

Warm Colors

Cool Colors

There was a lot of everything, I think my stash works well for me, and I am so glad it does! I have a lot of cool colors because my favorites are blue and green. However, I have a lot of red and pink too. And orange, who knew?? I plan on making the twin size quilt, because I don’t make small quilts :)

What do you think, would you like to join in too? It will be a very colorful quilt along, perfect for starting off our summer!

Stella Blue Friday

Thank you everyone for the kind comments left on my last post for the quilt I finished. You are all so encouraging! It makes me happy that you all have taken the time to leave a nice comment. This blog has been such a fun thing for me to do, and a great way to meet fellow quilters and stitchers.

Cutting, ironing, sewing, ironing, sewing, trimming… etc. This is the repetitive nature of making 196 tiny flying geese.

I made a test block this week to make sure all of the pieces I am making are fitting together. So far so good!

Dianne and I are using the same color of fabrics, however her blues are much darker, our quilts are going to look so different, but both will be beautiful! Go visit Dianne today and see her progress.

Stepping Stones Quilt Finished!

This pattern looks a lot like stepping stones to me, so that is why I named it. I've been trying to give my quilts a name recently, even if it is the name the pattern designer picked :) Do you name your quilts?? As you can see, I've been on a roll lately with quilt finishes, this is the last one for awhile. I have been pushing myself to get this one done. The end of the school year is this week, and it's a gift for Jessie's (other) teacher.

The pattern is from the book Fat Quarter Five, by Heather Mulder Peterson.

I used the fabric line Simple Abundance by Moda. I had a fat quarter bundle of it, and it was begging to be used for this quilt. I still have a lot of the fabric leftover, and I have lots of plans for it next.

The thread I used to quilt it was lightly variegated, it is a cream color with tan variegations. I am really happy with it, it was hard to choose a thread color because of the light and dark fabrics used in this quilt. I did straight line quilting, which made a grid on the back, I love that.

In an effort to "use it up" I have had these flannel pieces in my fabric stash for awhile, they are remnants from other quilt backs, and I decided to piece them together and use them on this quilt, the colors all match the top. I don't know that I like this back much, but I am happy that I used the fabric :)

In Portland the sun was refusing to come out, and finally this weekend it did! We were really enjoying being outside. On Saturday our neighbors took us on their boat. The Columbia River that runs through Portland is huge, and a lot of huge ships go up and down it delivering goods. Look at this oil tanker, it was slightly overwhelming to be riding in a tiny ski boat next to this monster.

We drove to the Columbia River Gorge and took in the view. Breathtaking right?

And on our way back stopped at Multnomah Falls. A great weekend! Now onto this week, hopefully I can survive.